Should Employees Be Paid For Time It Takes To Change Clothes?

Some jobs require more than just a uniform; they require specific clothing that must be taken on and off at the place of work. But that doesn’t mean that the employee gets paid for the time slipping in and out of these necessary duds. And that’s why a pair of nurses in Colorado have filed a class action lawsuit.

The nurses must put on scrubs while at work and they must remove the scrubs when they leave at the end of their shifts.

It’s a process that can eat up around 15 minutes to their day, which means upwards of 60 hours a year are spent changing in and out of scrubs.

The two plaintiffs say they decided to file the suit after they were written up for trying to clock in before getting changed.

“We have to go into a certain area not by the time clock, to find our size, which is not readily available and then change and then go back to the time clock and punch in,” one of the plaintiffs tells CBS.

The parent company of the hospital at which the nurses work says, “We have and always will look out for the best interest of our employees and that includes complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act.”

The plaintiffs tell CBS that their hope is more employees at their hospital and at others operated by the same company will join the lawsuit.

Nurses File Lawsuit Over Time To Dress For Work [CBS Denver]

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